<p>I went to K-3 in a tiny town. So tiny that the school “yearbook” included K-12. Due to a recent Facebook encounter, I had occasion to get out my second grade yearbook. There were 50 second graders. The pictures are in black and white but 47 of us are incredibly sunkissed, as if the school pictures were taken the day after a beach trip. But, of course, there was no beach. All I can figure is that all but three of us were sent outside to play ALL THE TIME. Of course, no one even considered sunscreen. Quite a few of the kids were farm kids, so they might have been working outside instead of playing. But almost all of us (100% Caucasian kids of Western European descent) have incredible tans or burns (can’t tell from the black and white).</p>
<p>Do you have memories of playing outside constantly?</p>
<p>We lived on the edge of the suburbs and played in the forest across the street ALL THE TIME. On non school days I would take off in the morning with a peanut butter sandwich–“see ya mom—I will be in the woods!” and come back just in time for dinner. This was at seven years old…(seems like 100 years ago)</p>
<p>I played outside all summer long. My two best friends lived 2 blocks away, and we ran back and forth between our three houses all day long. Bike riding all around the neighborhood was also big as was swimming at the neighborhood pool. Winter was a different story. I detest the cold and snow so BFs and I played in our basements most of the time. We did occasionally go sledding or ice skating (remember double blade skates?), but I always was the first to go home to sit by the radiator and sip hot chocolate.</p>
<p>Yes, all the time, and when we weren’t playing ball in the street or running around in the woods, we were playing… (gasp!) GUNS! Usually with sticks playing the part of guns. We got called in for meals only. Had school clothes and changed to play clothes when we got home (what a strange concept!)</p>
<p>I grew up on a farm so I was out a lot - probably too much without sunscreen, since I have had several spots of skin cancer removed from various parts of my body - non melanoma thankfully. I got a horse when I was 10 and rode her almost every day. Before that, I was a superhero named Sheena who had a wonder dog named Queen. I threw spears and wore a cape. Life on the farm can be lonely.</p>
<p>We played outside ALL THE TIME. Didn’t wear sunscreen daily, but any beach or pool time we did–not albino, but we do not tan, and burn very easily.</p>
<p>You’re right about nothing to watch on TV - there were the three networks, one independent station and the “educational” channel.</p>
<p>I remember when I was junior high age, we’d just be let loose on our bikes all day. One time my friend and I rode way out of town and stubbled on the dedication ceremony for a new city lake that was going to be dug…lord knows where we were…no one was concerned.</p>
<p>Yes, we never heard of sunscreen and we were all outside ALL the time (HI hardly has any rainy or bad days). In the summer, we would be barefoot on the blacktop basketball court. The first week, our feet would burn and be sore and for the rest of summer they would be tough as leather!</p>
<p>Odd thing is we rarely got sunburned. Now, just a short while in the sun with sunscreen and folks get pink–must be that increasing hole in the ozone.</p>
<p>Would play outside all the time. Remember setting up our hot wheels set outside. We would use a ladder to get on the roof of the garage and start the races from the basketball hoop attached to the garage. Remember also riding our bikes to Toys R Us which was at least seven miles away. We would have to stand outside the store and wait for a nice adult to walk in with because in those days you could not enter the store without an adult. Our mom did not drive so we basically had free reign to go anywhere we wanted. We would take our bikes up in the hills where they were building a posh housing development and have our own dirt bike track on the half built pads. Lots of fun.</p>
<p>You are so right! I remember going everywhere barefoot. That must have been before the “no shoes no shirt no service” signs because I’m pretty sure we went into all the stores “downtown” barefoot.</p>
<p>We moved from the midwest to the deep south just before I turned ten. I always wore sneakers as a little kid, but went barefoot as a teen until . . . around age 14 I was playing baseball in the street (blacktop) in the middle of summer. I got a great hit off the pitcher and took off for first base. My ball of my foot, however, decided to melt itself onto the street. My friends managed to get me home with the ball of my foot hanging on by a thread. No fear - the doc was able to save the bottom of my foot, but I never went barefoot again (nor allowed my kids to go barefoot)!!!</p>
<p>We must have been underprivileged, or at least fairly rural, because we only had three channels on our TV. Remembering summer vacation, stretching forever in front of us, three whole months outside every day all day, in the neighborhood, biking or riding to the pool. The only time I remember playing in the house was with blocks while watching Saturday A.M. cartoons. It is so sad that we have to stand guard over our kids…no freedom to head out the door and be back before dark. A woman at the gym was telling me she only lets her kids play in their completely fenced back yard if she can see them from the kitchen window. It is understandable, but a shame.</p>
<p>We didn’t have any money but we sure had a blast. To this day, when I bump into one of the kids from my old neighborhood, it’s a warm memory trip into our childhood. Whiffle ball games, fishing with our bamboo poles, building go carts out of junk wood and old tricyles (the unmotorized kind that you need a hill to enjoy), building forts, selling lemonade, selling strawberries and blueberry’s that we picked, going house to house to see if we could have some of the returnable coke bottles from our neighbors and then we would use our red wagon to wheel them to the corner store–cash them in–then splurge on bubblegum and popsicles, ring-o-leevio, hide and seek in the graveyard, paper routes through rain-sleet-snow, etc. We stayed outside from morning until we heard the Mom’s yell—“Supper!”. No one ever had a new bike but as long as we had wheels, we felt free. Another favorite thing was to get a couple of kids together to walk down into town and ask at the local appliance store if they had an empty refridgerator box. We would carry the box through the Main St., up a hill, around a turn, and to a backyard (we would take turns as to who got to have the box). That box would keep us entertained for a week. We would check our cellars for leftover paint and brushes and paint the outside. We would use a knife to cut out windows. We would draw and color pictures decorate the inside walls. An old towel became the rug. We would even attempt to sleep in our cardboard houses at night but always chickened out halfway through the night and snuck back into our houses. When we weren’t building things or playing, we were trying to make money by washing the neighbor’s cars or house windows, painting picket fences, mowing lawns, selling lemonade or cookies or berries that we picked, working at the corner store sorting recycle glass soda bottles, shoveling sidewalks, etc. We would even write and perform plays on a “stage” that we built in a junkyard and charge the neighbors to come and watch. We really were like the Little Rascal kids (remember that show?).</p>
<p>We were very self sufficient for little kids. Our parents really weren’t involved in our lives other than the typical–food, clothing, discipline, roof over our heads kind of attitude. Kids basically raised themselves through a series of trial and error experiences. The kids looked out for each other–if one kid was hungry, another kid would run home, make a sandwich, and bring it to him. If one kid didn’t have enough money for a treat at the store, we would pool our change together and split the treat. If one kid got hurt, the other would run home to grab a bandaid. Even our dogs had friendships with each other. Imagine the site of 4 or 5 kids at a times riding bikes through the town with their dogs running behind them.</p>
<p>“My mom used to whistle for us. The kind of whistle where you put two fingers on your mouth…Was that woman raised in Kentucky or what?”</p>
<pre><code>We had a tribe of kids we played with. Every family had a different signal. Some had large dinner bells with a specific code. We were the proud owners of a naval air horn. Two blasts ment wrap things up. Three ment GET HOME NOW OR ELSE. We could hear it a half mile away.
</code></pre>
<p>I grew up in a small town in the Midwest. We ran all over town and pretty much knew everyone…my kids are sometimes envious of this. There wasn’t much to do so we learned to make our own fun, played games outside, built “forts” in the woods, etc. Walking downtown to the library (with stops at the dimestore and soda place) was an all afternoon excursion in the summer.</p>
<p>The down side is that we didn’t have any school activities at all and the sports were for boys only. My kids have participated in a lot of activities such as school musicals/plays, Odyssey of the Mind, soccer,swim team that I would have loved but were not available to me.</p>
<p>We did spend a lot of time outside, some of it by default.</p>
<p>even if we went to day camp, we were outside with all the kids AFTER camp until dark…and as we got older, after dark…as a girl, I was definitely a minority (yea, i know, unusual…)…</p>
<p>even after I left for college, I remember the younger siblings all still there playing on the streets…</p>